The Discovery of the Parts of the Atom

Modern scientific usage denotes the atom as composed of constituent particles: the
electron, the proton and the neutron.

Electron

The German physicist Johann Wilhelm Hittorf undertook the study of electrical
conductivity in rarefied gases. In 1869, he discovered a glow emitted from the cathode
that increased in size with decrease in gas pressure. In 1896, the British physicist J. J.
Thomson performed experiments demonstrating that cathode rays were unique
particles, rather than waves, atoms or molecules, as was believed earlier. Thomson
made good estimates of both the charge e and the mass m, finding that cathode ray
particles (which he called “corpuscles”) had perhaps one thousandth the mass of
hydrogen, the least massive ion known. He showed that their charge to mass ratio (e/m)
was independent of cathode material.

Proton

In 1917 (in experiments reported in 1919), Rutherford proved that the hydrogen nucleus
is present in other nuclei, a result usually described as the discovery of the proton.
Earlier, Rutherford learned to create hydrogen nuclei as a type of radiation produced as
a yield of the impact of alpha particles on hydrogen gas; these nuclei were recognized
by their unique penetration signature in air and their appearance in scintillation
detectors. These experiments began when Rutherford noticed that when alpha particles
were shot into air (mostly nitrogen), his scintillation detectors displayed the signatures of
typical hydrogen nuclei as a product. After experimentation Rutherford traced the
reaction to the nitrogen in air, and found that the effect was larger when alphas were
produced into pure nitrogen gas. Rutherford determined that the only possible source of
this hydrogen was the nitrogen, and therefore nitrogen must contain hydrogen nuclei.
One hydrogen nucleus was knocked off by the impact of the alpha particle, producing
oxygen-17 in the process. This was the first reported nuclear
reaction, 14N+α→17O+p.

Neutron

In 1920, Ernest Rutherford conceived the possible existence of the neutron. In

particular, Rutherford examined the disparity found between the atomic number of an
atom and its atomic mass. His explanation for this was the existence of a neutrally
charged particle within the atomic nucleus. He considered the neutron to be a neutral
double consisting of an electron orbiting a proton. In 1932, James Chadwick showed
uncharged particles in the radiation he used. These particles had a similar mass as
protons, but did not have the same characteristics as protons. Chadwick followed some
of the predictions of Rutherford, the first to work in this then unknown field.

Atom

The atom is a basic unit of matter that consists of a dense central nucleus surrounded
by a cloud of negatively charged electrons. The atomic nucleus contains a mix of
positively charged protons and electrically neutral neutrons (except in the case of
hydrogen-1, which is the only stable nuclide with no neutrons).

J. J. Thomson
Sir Joseph John Thomson was an English physicist and Noble Laureate in Physics,
cresitted with the discovery and identification of the electron; and with the discovery of
the first subatomic particle.

J. J. Thomson, who discovered the electron in 1897, proposed the plum pudding model
of the atom in 1904 before the discovery of the atomic nucleus in order to include the
electron in the atomic model. In Thomson’s model, the atom is composed of electrons
(which Thomson still called “corpuscles,” though G. J. Stoney had proposed that atoms
of electricity be called electrons in 1894) surrounded by a soup of positive charge to
balance the electrons’ negative charges, like negatively charged “plums” surrounded by
positively charged “pudding”. The electrons (as we know them today) were thought to
be positioned throughout the atom in rotating rings. In this model the atom was also
sometimes described to have a “cloud” of positive charge.